Author: exergy_closewee

The 3rd General Assembly of the CloseWEEE project has successfully taken place at the facilities of Coolrec in Waalwijk, Netherlands. During this meeting, each Consortium Member introduced the updates and the next steps forward in their respectively led Work Packages. Two parallel sessions were also developed during the meeting with the aim to discuss the technical WPs as well as a brief pilot activity for the market activities.

During this meeting, a brief technical tour was also performed in the Coolrec recycling installations in Waalwijk

The Electronics Goes Green 2016+ will be carried out between September 7th and 9th 2016 in Berlin, Germany. It is the world’s leading conference on electronics & the environment and offers a place to show your results and innovative solutions for specific green versions. The event also showcases the future trends and solutions towards sustainable development in electronics sector for the community.

Circular Materials Conference 2016 will be carried out between May 11th and12th in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is an international conference which aims to bring together experts and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of the circular economy, recycling and environment. It also provides an interdisciplinary forum to present and discuss the most recent innovations and the solutions adopted in the field of circular economy, recycling and environment.

BIR convention 2016 is held between 30th May and 1st June in Berlin, Germany. It is attended by the decision makers of the most important international recycling companies from over 60 countries.

BIR Berlin is the perfect platform to check out new developments and build partnerships featuring a broad conference programme with an interesting array of speakers and market overviews in the different plenary meetings, as well as a modern exhibition concept.

RWM (September 13th-15th 2016, NEC in Birmingham) is Europe’s premier event for resource efficiency and waste management solutions, covering a three-day event which brings together the entire industry to help influence the all aspects of the waste hierarchy. In partnership with CIWM, it spans each element of the industry and is shaped around the demands of this rapidly growing sector.

Recycling 2016 is held on October 25th, 26th and 27th 2016 in Gorinchem, Netherlands. This event is the seventh edition of the trade show Recycling in Evenementenhal Gorinchem and is focused on the circular economy. It anticipates the trends and developments of the economy and important issues from the government.

According to the Department of Business (BIS) in the UK, the predicted household waste collected in 2016 will be 16,000 tonnes higher than it was in 2015. Regarding the information gathered by BIS, the overall 2016 target is below the required collection level needed to achieve the EU’s 45% target for the year, which stands at around 730,000 tonnes.

However, the Environmental Agency subsequently published its provisional WEEE collection figures at the start of March, which suggested that schemes may have collected some tonnages on top of that which was posted as WEEE evidence. Consequently, the data suggested that collections had in fact topped 521,000 tonnes.

BIS has opted to further increase the collection target for WEEE to a total of 544,341 tonnes for 2016. This represents an increase of close to 37,000 tonnes, when compared to the 2015 collection target.

The CloseWEEE projects 2nd General Assembly took place in the facilities of Fraunhofer Institute for Process engineering and Packaging (IVV) in Freising, Germany. During this meeting, the first results of the CloseWEEE project were announced by the partners as well as the first deliverables. A visit in the installations of Fraunhofer IVV was also performed with the aim to show the IVV labs and especially, the Creasolv® process

There are a massive amount of electronic devices going onto the market today. Nearly 60 million televisions were sold in Europe last year alone. Sooner or later these devices will return as electronics waste. In the past years, the recycling industry has developed to recover many metals such as ferrometals, copper, aluminum, precious metals, along with some selected plastics from these devices, but currently ignores many other important materials. The recently launched €5.9million project, CloseWEEE, will facilitate recovery and re-use of these materials and ensure the electronics manufacturing and recycling industry plays a key role in the drive towards a circular economy.

The project brings together experts from across Europe. Disassembling of electronic devices will be facilitated through the development of an online Recycler Information Center by iFixit in cooperation with the D.R.Z – Dismantling and Recycling-Centre. Sound disassembly guides will be provided to assist workers on the disassembly line to dismantle electronic devices rapidly. Reusing of previously under-recovered high grade polymers, such as PC/ABS, and antimony compounds used as flame retardants, from electronics waste without the usual problematic quality compromises will be investigated by major TV manufacturer, TP Vision. Recycling of batteries for recovery of graphite and other materials will be addressed by recycling experts, Accurec through development of advanced staged recycling processes.

As part of the project, Exergy Ltd. will undertake industrial scale-up of the developed processes and facilitate future commercialisation of the developments in collaboration with the other project partners.

The CloseWEEE project is among the first projects to be launched under the latest European research programme, Horizon 2020.

New economy models are being created and set up in Europe since the EU’s circular economy package has been laid down and updated in December 2015. These new models are significantly different from the traditional “wear and tear” models, where resources do not return to the loop or are recycled.

In relation to the EU’s Circular Economy Package and aiming to make a better use of our planet’s resources, Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEEs) are key elements. Within these WEEE streams which includes phones, computers and TVs among others, are several valuable and expensive materials which are found in a few places on our planet and can be potentially recovered and reused, e.g. rare earths and metals. On the other hand, hazardous compounds both for human health and for the environment are also found. Both reasons are sufficient to address an effective and correct treatment when the end of life (EoL) is achieved in these electrical and electronic products.

Especially, two EU Directives have been set within the WEEE framework: the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU) which introduces the schemes and targets for collection, recycling and recovery for all types of electrical goods and appliances. Also theRestriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) (2002/95/EC), which restricts the use of certain substances in E&E equipment.

The CloseWEEE project is in alignment with both EU Directives. Valuable materials such as plastics (PC/ABS, ABS), critical metals and additives among others are effectively recovered in this project and prepared for a second life. Circular economy scheme is achieved and the loop is closed.

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